Speller 226, Pranav Chandar, spelled "planxty" correctly. It's a dance to an Irish melody for the harp written in triplets and slower than the jig.
Pranav spelled deliberately, scribbling into his hand and punctuating each letter.
Before the finals, the Indiana sixth grader said he was glad to have made it to Thursday spelling.
"I'm just feeling really excited," Pranav said. "I didn't even know I'd make it to this point."
Pranav said he knew he was surrounded by strong spellers.
"I was just praying I would hear my name," he said. "I knew my hard work played a role."
Pranav likes studying roots, especially Greek ones. But he finds spelling easy. He loves weird words, he said. And he's excited that his brother, Varun, will get to keep watching him on stage.
"He tells me, 'You're going to win it. You've got it,'" Pranav said.
When he's not spelling, Pranav plays basketball and cricket, as well as alto sax and piano.